Rosewood Highlands

The campaign is based in a forested region known as the Rosewood Highlands. This vast woodland is is in the southern foothills of the Endless Mountains (also known as the Barrier Mountains).

The Rosewood Highlands remained largely unsettled for generations, haunted by goblins and firbolgs, fey and other monstrosities. As the civilized lands to the north and south of the Endless Mountains sought shorter connections for trade (before the Famine War), the Highlands were explored and became somewhat settled. As humanity delved deeper into the primeval woodland, the fey retreated to their own realms, hiding among the darkest places. However, the fey had been in constant war against the goblins and the other monstrous denizens of the Highlands, keeping the curse of the Darkness from spreading throughout the civilized lands. When the fey retreated, the Darkness began rising, pushing its progeny forward to wreak havoc on the world. Only the firbolg remained stalwart in their stand against the tide of the goblin hordes.

Geography
This heavily forested region is located just south of the Barrier Mountains (also called the Endless Mountains), east of the Kingdom of Hamlin, north of the Twin Cities of Ostaven and Westhaven, resting in the shadow of the great peak of Eversnow Mountain.


The region is largely hardwoods, dominated by its namesake, the Rosewood, a hardwood cherry tree whose spring blossoms look similar to roses. In addition to oak, cherry, maple, hemlock and various pines, small groves of kyak trees can also be found in the Highlands.

The forest is sparsely populated, compared to the civilized lands to the south, east and west. This is a frontier area, with isolated homesteads and fortified border villages, logging camps and trappers and hunters and those seeking adventure being the majority of the population. There are kingdoms, though the Emperor of the Kingdom of Hamlin scoffs at using such a lofty title for the warband leaders of the petty holds that dot the Highlands. Still, petty or not in the eyes of the great nations which surround them, the kingdoms of the Highlands can field some of the fiercest warriors in all the Midlands. This is no surprise, since life in the Rosewood Highlands is a constant struggle against the elements and predators which reveal nature’s hostility toward the encroachment of humanity, against the wild fay creatures that haunt the deepest parts of the forest, the wicked undead who are seen from time to time in the darkest of night, and the depredations of the goblins and their ilk who hide in their deep warrens.